Anyone else have a very late bed time for LO?

BigPoppa22 · February 2014

I know this is entirely our fault, but DW and I do not put DS (10 months old) to bed until 9:30-10, every night. He has his last bottle at 8:30 and then bed time at 9:30-10. At 6:30-7 he will either wake up himself for a bottle or I will pick him up and feed him which wakes him up, halfway. Then I lay him back to sleep until 10 am, though sometimes he stays awake and plays for 30 minutes first. He is down to one 90 minute nap at 2:30.

We did Ferber sleep training and most nights he either is moved from our bed to his crib right as he is falling asleep with no problems, or we put him in his crib awake, let him cry for 3-4 minutes, and go lay him down and he is right to sleep. He used to wake up once per night crying, and we would just need to give him the pacifier that fell out, and right back to bed. The past 2 weeks though, he wakes up crying and puts himself back to sleep right away.

Do any other parents, because of your own selfishness or lack of discipline, have a baby who goes to bed late? Anyone know any problems this causes, or does it not matter much as long as he gets all of his sleep? I am not worried about daycare schedules and things like that, we do not plan on doing daycare or preschool for a few years. I know that children are pretty easy to adapt to new schedules later, as needed.

minervacullen · February 2014

DS had a 9pm-ish bed time and slept til 9am, but would still wake to nurse until he weaned, until I started working ft again when he was 3. It worked well for us. He was also very flexible with nap time and has always been a happy guy. Even now he would rather stay up and sleep late. I think it's his natural cycle.
He's in 1st grade now and occasionally he will have a hard time falling asleep at 8 or 8:30. But I think that's on par for his age group. He stays in his room when he's put to bed, he's always been good about that, he just talks and plays with whatever is nearby.

Crequito · February 2014

DD goes down around 8 but has been as late as 9 some nights. I find that if she goes down at 8 she wakes around 6:30 btu if she goes down at 9 she wakes around 7 so either way she's still getting about the same sleep. As long as your LO isn't overly tired then go with the schedule you have set.

=Lee=B · February 2014

If your baby is waking 12hrs later then it doesn't really matter when they go to bed. The concern is the babies that go down at 10pm but wake at 6am...as they are not getting enough sleep overnight.

If your schedule works for your family then go with it!

SidraJedi · February 2014

DD is a night owl like her dad. I am an early bird but I felt as if it is more trouble to adjust her preferred schedule than it is to adjust mine, so I just go with it.

Pearls+Oysters · February 2014

DS sometimes won't go down until 11pm, so I wouldn't worry about 9.5-10 being "late". Also, as PP stated, he still gets 11-12hrs of sleep a night so no concern.

BigPoppa22 · February 2014

Thanks, folks!

I only meant selfish in that he sleeps/wakes late basically so my wife can sleep in and so that I can spend more time with him after work. Our needs, rather than his. But if 10-12 hours is the same regardless of what time and there are no bad effects, everyone's needs are being met!

ah625 · February 2014

My daughter goes to bed at a different time pretty much every night. Sometimes she's still partying at 11pm. Other days she's out like a light by 7:30. Due to my husband's job and me being a SAH, every day is different for us. We just roll with whatever she does because it works for us.

My son was the same way. He's 8 now. Around 18mos he started having a predictable sleeping pattern. He's had no long term effects from a wacky sleep schedule, but that's obviously anecdotal. Like PPs said, as long as baby is getting enough rest I wouldn't stress it since it's not affecting your life otherwise.

happy_un-bride · February 2014

When he started STTN we would put him down at midnight and he'd wake at 8am. DS wasn't a big sleeper. Eventually we got this back to 10pm around 7/8M and then 8pm around 10M. He always gets up at 8am. When he starts daycare though, we'll have to get him up a little earlier, so we'll see how that goes.

aibrean · February 2014

She lost one of her two naps in the day and also we started getting her ready at 5pm (bath/pjs and dinner). Tonight she passed out at 7pm. This is a baby that is normally 9:30pm. We just started her bedtime routine 2 hours earlier. It's a bit hard since I don't get home from work until near 6pm on the weekdays (except Wednesday as I work from home with her). We also moved her bathtub into our bathtub to start transitioning. Goodness the girl gave us her fish thermometer which typically we take away before getting her up and into a towel and THEN she proceeded to try and climb out of the tub. LOL. She wants to be a big girl. She also started actually self-eating finger foods today.

kmornelas29 · February 2014

My DD goes to bed around 9-10 every night. I let her choose when she gets tired, and this was the natural time she choose. It works great too, because I am a SAHM, so she is able to sleep til 9ish every morning. Also, DH and I are night time people, so we have no problem staying up. She actually sleeps better the later she goes down. There is no way she would let me put her down for the night at 7 or 8 like some babies.